Music : Shankar – Jaikishen
Lyrics : Shailendra & Hasrat Jaipuri
What a nice album! I am not surprised that it won the Filmfare awards for Music, Lyrics and Best Playback Singer (Male) in the year it was released. The music feels fresh and lovely even now. I am listing the songs in order of the tracks in Music India Online but they are again not in the order of appearance in the film. I must say that disturbs me, as the songs have their own narrative which is lost by this strange order.
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Sab Kuch Seekha Maine (Mukesh) The song suits Raj Kapoor to a T. a very popular title song.
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Dil Ki Nazar Se (Mukesh, Lata Mangeshkar) is the second duet in the film by order of appearance. A joyous song, sung to perfection.
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Tera Jana (Lata Mangeshkar) A sad song, it is interesting in that its beat is not that slow. A genre in which Lata excels.
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Woh Chand Khila (Lata Mangeshkar, Mukesh) is the only track with lyrics by Hasrat Jaipuri. Beautifully composed and sung, it is enhanced by Nutan’s luminous screen presence. Has there been any actress as beautiful as Nutan looks in this song? Its almost unearthly !
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Kisi ki Muskuharat (Mukesh) This song introduces Raj Kapoor’s character in the film. An upbeat song with a catchy tune, it has a staccato feel to it. Cleverly composed and well sung.
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Nineteen Fixty Six (Lata and Manna Dey) Totally fails to capture my interest. A Helen dance number, it isn’t up to the standard of the rest of the album.
To admire Nutan’s beauty and this brilliant song, listen to the clip below :
I must say though that I don’t see the appeal of the persona that Raj Kapoor so often adopted in his films. I am perhaps in the minority, as his films were very successful. He has a dialogue about social conscience in this film, near the end, which explains what he was trying to say however he seems to associate honesty, integrity and humanity only with poverty and with naivety touching upon ignorance. The line differentiating the unworldly, the unsophisticated with the ignorant and the foolish is a blurry line indeed. As much as I admire the stellar qualities I listed above, I would only truly admire it when it is a result of a mind as sharp as sabre, a mind which arrives on these qualities by intellectually assessing their superiority and mindfully selecting them, not arriving upon them by mischance or naiveté. But we are talking about the music in this blog, and the music of Anari is stellar indeed.
Music To My Ears 